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Other Modernities

Observations about a North-West-European Architecture

Abstract

Belgian mid-twentieth century architecture is
unsettling. In the post-war years large infrastructural projects descended upon existing cities,
ripping apart historic ensembles and neighbourhoods – this, ironically, in a country that had
experienced traumatic destruction in 1914–1918,
but the physical fabric of which had been left
relatively unscathed by the Second World War.
After 1945, modernity came in the form of the
engineers who were responsible for the new
network of roads, tunnels and viaducts crushing
through the city. Above the tunnels and metros
and along the new inner city motorways, new
buildings emerged that featured curtain walls and
other ‘modernist’ elements that, however, remain
thumbnails attached to buildings that seem
otherwise fairly untouched by modern principles.
The article examines the conditions under which
architecture developed in the course of the
twentieth century and a range of types of modernity (which often are reactions to modernisation) that seem particular to Belgium: unsolicited,
attenuated, crafted, questioned. The modern
architecture that emerged in twentieth-century Belgium is different from other modern architec-
tures in North-West Europe in its absence of
strident rhetoric. It wishes to fit in, in a society as
well as in a city, and it does so with proficiency,
artistic and artisanal spirit.

This publication was made in collaboration with the Flemish Architecture Institute and has been made possible with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Brussels and the Creative Industries Fund NL.

OASE #98 about Narrating Urban Landscapes was presented on 1 February 2018 at the University of Greenwich, London. Lectures by Bruno Notteboom, Kris Scheerlink and Klaske Havik. Image: Klaske Havik, editor of OASE, during the presentation.

Especially for the 25th anniversary of the Kunsthal in Rotterdam OASE editor Véronique Patteeuw, talked to architect Rem Koolhaas about the realisation, current function and the future of the building. Also OASE #94 about OMA was discussed!

On 19 October 2017 OASE and the KU Leuven organised a workshop for students from KU Leuven and TU Delft. Later on OASE #98 was launched by the editors of this issue and the Scientific Board of OASE. Maarten Overdijk (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) and Bas Smets (Bureau Bas Smets) gave lectures.

On 18 July 2017 member of the OASE editorial staff Veronique Patteeuw discussed her work as co-editor of OASE #97 at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York. Click here for more details.